Facts of (human) life

Thursday

Nov 28, 2013 at 12:01 AM

BOSTON — It's one thing to tell a child to eat right or exercise.

MOLLY DRISCOLL

BOSTON — It's one thing to tell a child to eat right or exercise.

It's quite another to be able to show them how many cupcakes or carrot sticks equal 2,000 calories (more carrot sticks than cupcakes, as you might imagine) or to watch them walk in front of a screen that then tells them, based on the speed of their walk, how many calories they'll burn per hour walking at that speed and — a slightly more child-friendly measurement — how many grapes they would burn per hour.

Nutrition and exercise are only two of the myriad of topics touched on in the Hall of Human Life, now open at the Museum of Science in Boston.

The title of the new exhibit hall is broad, and those who designed the exhibit hall have taken full advantage. The hall has those previously mentioned food-related stations but also has activities and information centering on diseases such as cancer and Type 2 diabetes, mental processes like how well a person concentrates and how we respond to social cues, and other topics.

At the beginning of the exhibit, you receive a wristband, which you scan at the entrance and at many of the interactive stations within the hall so your data can be collected. One part of the section known as the "Organisms" area focuses on sickness and you can use a screen to indicate whether you've felt any flu-like symptoms in the past two weeks and whether you got a flu shot. The flu station ends with a display of how your answer compares to those of other museum visitors; almost every interactive component ends this way. An area on infections that resist antibiotics has stories from three people who have been affected by them, including a doctor who is working on the problem and someone who had an infection.

In the "Time" section is a spot where you can see how good your balance is and an interesting station which tests how easily you get distracted. The screen asks you to determine whether there are more red or blue dots while other images flash on the screen to draw your eyes away from the colored dots. (I was terrible at this.)

The "Communities" area focuses on social interaction. One station lets you test how well you remember faces — it turns out we're worse at recognizing people with facial features different from what we're most used to — and another area consists of two tubes, one filled with stuffed animals and one with small balls. You're asked to guess how many stuffed animals are in the tube by yourself, then, for guessing how many balls are in the tube, you're given a sample guess to see how you're affected by others.

An "Exploration Hub" area has museum staff working with you on such activities as matching up skeleton body parts and — don't say I didn't warn you — examining a real sheep heart or dissecting a sheep eyeball to see how human bodies and the bodies of other animals work.

Over in the "Food" area, the walking station measures how many calories (and grapes) you would burn at your current rate. At another station, you're presented with a breakfast buffet and asked to select a sample breakfast you'd eat. The second time around, you're presented with more food options and asked to build a meal again, and it turns out that many people, when presented with more food choices, take more food, a behavior we got from our ancestors. (So skip buffets.)

In the "Physical Forces" area, one station asks you about how much sleep you got recently and when you usually go to bed and wake. Once it has your data, you're instructed to use a robot arm to move a module, a task a budding astronaut might have to take on, as you're immersed in a blue light similar to what astronauts use to help them stay awake. You are able to see how your proficiency with the task is affected by how much sleep you got the night before or your age, among other factors.

Over in another area of "Physical Forces," a screen captures your stride and shows you whether you have a high, neutral, or low arch and where you put the most pressure on your feet when you walk. At a station nearby, you can place your finger on a small pad and experience how quickly your body temperature drops when your finger is exposed to the cold.

And a "Provocative Questions: area will have a new topic every six months — the current query is whether parents should know the genome of their newborn or future child. Visitors can see personal statements from citizens about the topic, see scientific evidence about the topic being debated, and explore a social values area where you can select such answers as whether the government or citizens should have the power to make a decision on the topic.

The exhibit is great for all ages, and Hall of Human Life manager Elizabeth Kong says the museum aims to have the new permanent exhibit be a group experience where anyone can have fun and learn.

"We aim to address misconceptions and inspire you, as you discover new things about yourself and have fun comparing your data with friends and family," Kong says. "You will feel the excitement of science, exploring how your body works by asking 'How do you know?' questions, and adding your experiences to our unique experiment. We also want to help you navigate the tidal wave of information on health and biology and encourage you to ask more questions."

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